The Divine Wind
by theb3arjew
Summary: A mysterious rebellion is brewing in the Fire Nation colonies, and the gAang reunites to try to figure out who (or what) is behind it. Set 3 years after the Finale of ATLA, this story mostly follows canon with a few notable exceptions. NOTE: One of the main characters in this fic is named Kai. He is very similar to Kai from LoK, but he is an altogether different character. KATAANG
1. Reunion

(A/N) This is my first ever attempt at writing, so any reviews and constructive criticism are very welcome! I know the writing will be very rough around the edges until I solidify my skills, but I am very proud of the core story, and I think that you will all love it. Note that Kai is an OC character. He is very similar to Kai from LoK (which is actually coincidental) but I just really liked the name so I used it anyway.

The war ended on Kai's thirteenth birthday. The news first came in by way of a military messenger hawk, around noon, and the streets were flooded in celebration within the hour. The people of Yu Dao had never lived in a peaceful world, and they were excited to try it out. Kai, however, didn't really know how to react. His birthday, and now the ending of the war, shared a date with the anniversary of his father's death.

Kai knew that despite the ending of the war, his life wouldn't really change all that much. He would still be an orphan, he would still live on the streets, and he would still work with his best friend to survive. As he sat there pondering, Kai heard a familiar voice.

"Kai, you gotta get out here! The streets are flooded with excited people and our stash is running low. Its prime picking time!" Rio yelled as he jumped down from a rooftop overhanging the alleyway that they both called home. Kai sighed as he pulled himself off his little perch and met up with his friend. He hated stealing from people, especially on a day like this, but they were careful to never take from anybody who really needed it, and it was the only alternative to joining one of Yu Dao's feared street gangs.

It was a quiet morning in the Southern Water Tribe. Like any other morning, Kanna and Katara woke up early to prepare breakfast for the village, and the warriors drowsily walked over to the training fields outside of the wall to train with Sokka and Pakku. The South Pole had fallen into a consistent, quiet rhythm since the end of the war, and nobody was complaining. The Southern Tribe were hit extremely hard by the war, second only to the Air Nomads, and a return to normalcy was very welcome. This day, however, would be anything but normal.

A few hours after dawn, a loud "Woo hoo!" echoed through the village, and Katara smiled harder than she ever had before. They were back.

"Twinkletoes, if you ever do anything like that again, I swear I will metalbend you to the underside of a boat," Toph yelled as Appa approached the landing site. Zuko and Aang both laughed, as they had very much enjoyed Appa's aerial acrobatics. Even Mai was smirking.

"Fine, but I thought Sifu Toph liked fun," Aang mumbled as he jumped off of Appa. As soon as he hit the ground, he ran off to find Katara.

Zuko laughed again, remarking that he had never seen Aang run that fast in battle as he helped Mai and Toph off the giant Sky Bison. In the three years, since the war ended, Aang had never been apart from Katara for more than a couple days. Now, it was their first time seeing each other in 3 months, and he didn't blame Aang for being excited.

Aang ran around the village in a near panic, unable to find his girlfriend. He paused next to a snowman, wondering where Katara was. He heard a chuckle next to him as the snowman violently exploded, revealing a grinning Katara. Aang flew backward in shock, but quickly enveloped the former snowman in a warm embrace.

Katara returned the embrace, but soon pulled away. "I really got you there," she half-bragged through tears of happiness. Aang, who was similarly teared up, just smiled broadly as he moved in for a kiss.

Sokka heard the commotion and ran back into the village to greet everybody. He ran up to Zuko and gave him a hug.

"What are you guys doing here? I thought that Aang was gonna drop you guys back off at the palace before he came back?" Sokka asked, happy to see his friends but confused as to why they were here. "I thought that the Fire Lord didn't have time for visits to the frozen lands down under."

Zuko smiled at first, happy to see his friend, but then became serious. "There are some serious problems brewing in one of the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom. It might become a fully-fledged rebellion soon."

"A rebellion against what?" Sokka replied, confused. "I thought that most of the colonies were independent already."

"They are. That's the scary part. We don't know who's leading this or what they want, but they have full control of the city's gangs and thugs, and they're building an army for something. Aang wanted to the get the gang back together to investigate. We're leaving tomorrow."

Sokka nodded in agreement. "What's the colony called? I can ask around with the warriors and try to get some intel."

"Yu Dao."


	2. The Great Leader

(A/N) Stuff starts happening! These first few chapters are going to be a little slow, as I need to set up the plot. But we get a little taste of action here, and its only going to lead to more fun. Hope you enjoy!

Firebending always came easy to Kai. Ever since his father died, he had been hesitant to use it, but whenever he did, he loved it. Other people always seemed angry when they firebended, and he felt bad for them. Kai, on the other hand, was always ecstatic when bending. When he was little, his father took him to some old temple near the fire nation. The men there were strange, but they were excellent benders, and they explained to him that fire did not always lead to destruction. They said that fire was light in the darkness, and that fire was the essence of life. For some reason, that really hit Kai deeply.

But firebending always reminded Kai of his father. Despite not being a bender, his dad taught him almost everything he knew. Because of that, Kai style was extremely unique. Kai always asked his father why his firebending looked so different, but his dad never gave him a clear answer. He always said, "One day, you will understand."

Four long years had passed since he watched his father die, and he still felt a melancholy wave every time the image washed through his head.

But none of that mattered right now. Kai was cornered, and Rio was on the ground next to him, unconscious. In front of him, a young man was talking. Kai figured that he should actually listen to him at this point, so he shifted his focus.

"… bender. The Great Leader requires all benders to join his Army. You will not fight us like your friend did," the man said.

Kai looked at him and his cronies, and saw that most of them were terrified. They obviously weren't soldiers, and they didn't really want to be fighting and capturing kids. Realizing this, Kai replied, "Great Leader? You all look like thugs from one of the gangs, not soldiers."

"The Great Leader is uniting all of us. He will bring us to the Promised Land, and He will destroy those who resist."

"Alright, both you and this Leader guy sound crazy." Kai looked over at his fallen friend, "we're not going with you."

The head thug shrugged and prepared for a fight. Kai counted 5 thugs, and although a couple of them looked useless, he still didn't like his odds. Still though, he needed to protect his friend.

The head thug struck first. Taking a wide stance, he pulled a large chuck of earth and launched it toward Kai. Using the forms his father taught him, he moved in a circle while rotating to dodge the rock. Using his momentum, he sent a sweeping, knee height fire blade toward the thugs. While they were busy with that, Kai tried to pick up Rio to make an escape. Instead, he saw that Rio was now frozen to the ground, and he looked up in time to dodge a water whip aimed at his head. Kai jumped up onto the wall of the alleyway and pushed off directly into the waterbender, knocking both of them over. Kai rolled out of it and directly into a huge rock launched by the head thug.

Kai already felt his shoulder swelling from the impact, but he quickly got up. He needed to end this fight right away. No longer feeling bad about hurting the thugs, he launched a massive fireball and knocked all of the thugs out into the street.

"Why didn't you just start with that move?" Kai heard from the back of the alleyway. He looked back and saw Rio struggling to stand up. "You know you could kick every single one their asses whenever you want."

Kai grimaced as the pain in his shoulder began to throb as the adrenaline wore off and said, "I didn't know if any of them were firebenders. Plus, I don't exactly enjoy hurting people like you do."

"Eh you know I don't _like _hurting people. I just do what has to be done." Rio limped over to his friend. "Let's get out of here before their friends start looking around for them.

Appa let out an annoyed grunt as he began to tire under the strain of the weight he was carrying. Aang wondered whether Appa had ever carried this many people before. He and Katara were sitting up on Appa's neck, working the reigns and catching up with each other. Toph, Zuko, Mai, Sokka, Suki, and Katara's friend Cali were all on the saddle, along with all of their gear. Aang halted his conversation with Katara and told Appa that they would be in Yu Dao soon.

Despite the somewhat harrowing circumstances, it was good to have Team Avatar back together. They hadn't all been in the same place in the same time since the peace negotiations in Ba Sing Se concluded over a year earlier.

About an hour later, Yu Dao finally came into sight. The city was located in a beautiful valley, and bordered a wondrous harbor.

"Wow, its beautiful!" Aang heard Katara mutter. He looked over at her, admiring her joyous face, until she abruptly changed her expression. "What's going on down there?"

Aang looked and saw two boys trying to run away from a horde of men. Sighing, he pulled on Appa's reigns to see what was going on.


End file.
